Lando Norris took pole for the third year in a row for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a qualifying session that had plenty of rain.
Q1
After nearly 90 minutes of delays due to torrential rain falling on the circuit, qualifying was able to get properly underway as conditions were still incredibly difficult for drivers. This caused a lot of the early laps to be about discovering where the grip is, and allowed for a lot of shuffling of the order as times started tumbling.
The conditions also opened the door for a lot of drivers to make mistakes. The likes of Bearman, Stroll and the debuting Rafael Camara all had spins, but did not pick up any damage. The same could not be said for Gabriel Bortoleto though, who hit the wall after spinning. While he was able to get back to the pits, he damaged his rear wing, and would not be able to continue qualifying for his home race.
The conditions meant that some drivers were in positions that they wouldn’t normally be, such as Alonso and Hulkenberg having spent time at the top of the timing table. On the opposite end of this, both Alpine drivers are usually able to make it through to Q2 pretty comfortably, even often competing for places in Q3, but today both Gasly and Colapinto were knocked out in Q1.
ELIMINATED
17. Franco Colapinto – Alpine +0.177
18. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.299
19. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.503
20. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac +0.624
21. Sergio Perez – Cadillac +1.359 (BACK OF THE GRID START)
22. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +8.414
Q2
Conditions continued to improve throughout Q2, with drivers even making the switch over to intermediate tyres, where more significant improvements could be gained. However, the switch to these tyres also came with additional risks, as the track was still slippery and there was certainly still a chance for mistakes to be made.
Rafael Camara found this out the hard way, crashing his Haas towards the end of the session, bringing his first F1 qualifying session to an unfortunate end in front of his home crowd.
Camara’s crash also brought out the red flag without enough time left in the session to resume it, which would save some drivers who had set suboptimal times, such as Antonelli and Norris, but also screwed others who had set even worse lap times, such as Oscar Piastri, who found himself being eliminated from Q2 for the second straight week.
Camara wasn’t the only driver to retire in Q2 though, as Arvid Lindblad’s session came to an early end due to a mechanical issue, with the rookie managing to safely park his car behind the barriers at turn 4.
ELIMINATED
11. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.699 (BACK OF THE GRID START)
12. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +1.067
13. Rafael Camara – Haas +2.213
14. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls +2.395
15. Carlos Sainz – Williams +2.483
16. Max Verstappen – Red Bull NO TIME (BACK OF THE GRID START)
Q3
The rain started getting worse as Q3 started, and while the drivers were just about able to hang on with the intermediate tyres, they would only be able to set one or two competitive laps before the conditions made that unviable.
A number of the usual midfield runners would be the first to cross the line, including Alonso making Aston Martin’s first Q3 appearance of the season, with Lawson going fastest of those not typically at the front, having initially gone 2nd fastest behind Russell.
Norris would then come to take top spot away and push Lawson down to 3rd, while faster times from Antonelli and Leclerc would push him further down to 5th place on the day, though he would be starting tomorrow’s race higher up the grid due to penalties.
One driver with a penalty was George Russell, who was frustrated that he was told to back off after starting to get close to Albon’s Williams. He felt like he had enough pace to get the fastest lap, which would at least mitigate some of the damage from his 5 place penalty.
Qualifying Results
1. Lando Norris – McLaren 1:27.470
2. George Russell – Mercedes +0.204 (5 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
3. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.625
4. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.819 (10 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
5. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls +0.851
6. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +1.198
7. Isack Hadjar – Red Bull +1.293
8. Ollie Bearman – Haas +2.361
9. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +2.841
10. Alex Albon – Williams +2.986
